Reading Journal #3 -- Confronting Reality

Fall from Innocence

     Herman Hesse, in his work Demian, said, “The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world.” This quote can applied to explaining how people grow up. The quest to become an adult isn’t always delightful and sweet for the reality, which the children get to confront instead of myths, is sometimes bitter. Unlike what the childhood fantasies say, the real world is corrupted and harsh. Therefore, during the process of growing up, it is inevitable to have many of our illusions and myths to be shattered, which was the same for Gordie, the main character in Stephen King’s novella The Body.

1) Realizing adults / parents

     Innocent babies and most of the children believe that adults are perfect, both physically and morally. Especially parents are role-models for the children to follow, since they are the very first people that babies see and learn from. Teachers, given authority and honor by the society, is also respected and trusted by the students. Thus, children have innate fear and admiration towards adults including their parents. The process of growing up deals with this issue; children learn that adults aren’t always perfect and nice.

     Gordie feels betrayed by his parents as they never really paid attention to him. His parents’ sole concern was Dennis, Gordie’s older brother, who died in a car accident prior to the beginning of the story. Teddy seems to be proud of his father as a war veteran but still he suffered great pain because of him. Chris literally “hates” his father, and he realizes how teachers can be corrupt through the milk money incident. Feeling sorry, Chris gave the money he stole back to Miss Simons, the teachers, who used it for her new skirt. Hearing the story, Gordie is also shocked in vein of learning the reality.

2) Realizing friends

     It is true that throughout the journey, Gordie finds true meanings of friendship. The journey they go through involved team work and trust between friends. However, as the story heads toward the end, Gordie also learns that friendship isn’t eternal either. Chris tells Gordie the truth that “friends drag you down,” pointing Teddy and Vern. And it was also true that Gordie and Chris slowly departed from the other two after the adventure, as Teddy and Vern became “two or more faces in the halls.” Friends, unlike our childhood dreams, aren’t always perfect, helpful or everlasting.

3) Realizing life and mortality

     This story is frankly about a journey to find a dead body. The four little boys get to confront the reality of “death” and “mortality,” which impacts the soul for sure. Gordie, after seeing the dead body, said, “He was a boy, he was dead, and I rejected the idea that anything about it could be natural; I pushed it away with horror.” Confronting mortality broke up the childhood myths towards life and death, showing the reality. And through this process the four boys grew up.

Reflective essay: a lesson for perfectionists

     A slight ache is running through my head, probably because the bus is trembling so much. Between the curtains the vast greens come to my eyes. This bus is heading for Gwangju, South Korea, where I will participate in a debate competition. I don’t feel that anxious—I’d rather say that I am eager see how far I could go. During the last few months I went through many special experiences. With my friends I participated in soccer matches, debate competitions and even went to Guam for a mock trial tournament. I wouldn’t have had the chance if I didn’t come to KMLA, since in ordinary public schools I would devote my time solely for school exams. And looking back, I find that I also went through many hardships, and overcame, a story of a little perfectionist finding out his limits.

These days, I feel like I have somehow reached my limits. Too tired and too exhausted I can’t really “think.” It feels like I have been living unconsciously for the past few days. And today, the stress level had hit the apex because of today’s debate, where I was totally humiliated and self-esteem shattered.

     I really wanted to become a better debater and a fluent English speaker. Many times I feel like I can actually do that buy whenever I stand in front of the podium and face the judges, Wayne and the seniors, I start to stumble in my speech. I get repetitive and lose sharpness, which is crucial for debating. Today, it was even worse. I prepared for the motion and set up some points, but just before the debate our team’s senior came and told me that I should change them. The two arguments were too weak and irrelevant. Listening to her, I agreed so I tried to modify them. However, the debate started soon and I was the leader of opposition, my turn came fast. I had to think of rebuttals and the definitional challenge but the problem was that I couldn’t even organize my own points. The result was awful. I got stuck right in the middle of the speech, just by myself, and couldn’t fulfill any of the duties as a LO. The comments were harsh and I felt abject. I really wanted to give up. All of the comments looked as if they were criticizing me …

     This is a piece of writing that I scribbled in May. Even today, my lack of fluency in English is a taunting limit. Back then, it seemed impossible to overcome, for I was given too little time. I entered debate competitions starting from this year, which means I had no time to learn and get better. Such situations made me fall down, devastated. I started to give up. People say, “Desperate times call for desperate measures,” but I felt I didn’t have any measures at all.

     If I had given up at that moment, I won’t be here riding this bus. Facing my limits, I chose to loosen myself. This doesn’t mean that I strived so hard and did something special to dramatically overcome my hardships. To a certain extent, it can be said that I actually gave up. I gave up to force myself do become a perfectionist. I gave up to blame myself being so powerless, incomplete and even useless. And I chose to let myself to be “myself,” believing that I can start up from the bottom. Day by day, I improved, which was possible as I didn’t have the “perfection” paradigm stuck in my head. From this series of experiences, I learned a simple, yet important lesson that limits do not define me; I define my limits.

TED: Open-source for the better-solution

     I don't know exactly when, but I started to have an exceptional fervor towards the study of medicine and human biology. Especially when I was in middle school, I was somehow crazy about the idea of becoming a medical scientist, fighting against detrimental diseases and even working for the WHO, the World Health Organization. Now, I have become more dispssionate about it, after learning that if I take the M.D.-Ph.D. integrated program after four years of undergraduate, 38 will be my age when I could take my first step as a professional. Though, I am still interested in this field for it is directly connected to life and death. And though it might sound rather absurd, I stand for philantrophy and I want to be person society needs.
     In this TED video, Jay Bradner, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, explains a discovery that is so terrific in two ways. His team developed a highly complicated molecule named JQ1, which is a cure for a rare type of midline carcinoma. This cancer is caused by a virulent protein molecule named BRD4. Aside the complex chemical names, this discovery is worth being extoled since it directly helps millions of patients around the globe. Moreover, BRD4 was one of those that were previosly known to be "incurable" or "undrugable." For Dr. Bradner and his team, it is also very special since it gave hope to them that they can find novel cures from studying the basic chemical identities of illness.
     However, the development of JQ1 has another important meaning. Dr. Bradner, along with his scientific experiments on drugs, conducted a social experiment. He implemented a revolutionary and tentative policy, which is to disclose the precious chemical information of their cure. Other researchers, mostly from pharmaceutical companies, would have certainly thought that Dr. Bradner was mad.  Similar to the firms that are infamous to be reticent and to repudiate exchanging information, he could have just kept the information to himself, produce medicine or sell it at an astronomical price. In the pharmaceutical market, chemical information equals fortune. However, Dr. Bradner decided to sacrifice the outcome of his team's diligent work for the sake of the whole society.
     It would have been banal and both sad if the pharmaceutical companies simply benefited from the disclosure of JQ1. This social experiment, as Dr. Bradner says, has been "unfortunately successful," for it was provoactive enough to instigate the number of researchers to augment and more labs to engage in the study of this molecule, enhancing the quality and stability through additional experiments conducted by these newcomers. Bradner's policy expedited the discoveries of new medications and more possible uses of JQ1, as it was found to be effective for Leukemia, multiple myeloma and apidocyte, all thought to be incurable. He expects this cycle of discovery to be incessant. All he did was "opening" the source of his new yet austere form of  cure, and what he recieved was the great euphony of numerous researchers, united under the same perspective of developing new medication. Dr. Bradner's choice was truly laudable, and inspriational.
     I hope the acheivements of Dr.Bradner have successfully derided the selfish pharmaceutical companies. They probably thought he was squandering his oppurtunity, being foolish. Of course, according to their sens of "success," Dr. Bradner is a complete failure. But that "succuss" is too superficial to be recognized as meaningful. One reseracher and his team brought the new spirit into the field of medicine. And for once more, I hope that labs all around the world will come out from their moral depravity and show deference towards Dr. Bradner.

Review: He's the Dark Knight, not the Batman

He’s the Dark Knight, not the Batman

     Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” is one of the most spectacular movies that I’ve ever seen. As one of the Batman series, starting from The Batman Begins, I thought this moview would be just so similar to the typical 'super-hero-action' films. All of the comic-based hero movies I've seen were way to simple to be called as good films. First of all, most of them rely on special effects; explosions, lasers and so ever. Also, the hero is literally the "good" guy, one distinct villian the "bad" guy and the rest are ordinary, innocent citizens so naive and ought to be protected. Typical hero films completely fit to the "hero's journey," which makes the plot banal. However, The Dark Knight is different.

      I have five critieras to evaluate and discuss on this movie, which are how the movie is creative, dynamic, well-developed, funny/heart-warming and engaging.

Reading Journal #2 - The Body

    

        “This business of being ignored: I could never really pin it down until I did a book report in high school on this novel called The Invisible Man … [N]obody notices him at all … like a black ghost”

Gordon Lachance, the protagonist of Stephen King’s novella The Body, is a twelve-year-old boy, brought up in a rather average family. He has three friends named Chris, Vern and Teddy. The four play together in their own secret meeting room, the tree house. This novella is basically a story about their adventure to find a dead body. But before the actual journey begins, King introduces the characters by inviting the readers for a journey to the suburbs of Maine during the ‘60s.

First of all, Chris Chambers is from a poor family and his father has alcohol issues. His brothers, “Eyeball” Chambers and others, are recognized as problematic students in school and in the whole town. It says that Chirs’s dad was “always on a ‘mean streak,’ more or less.” And Chris also “hated him like poison,” since he was beaten by his drunken dad occasionally.   

     The other two friends also come from inferior family backgrounds. Teddy Duchamp has a father sent to the “section eight” in hospital because of his mental illness. When Teddy was eight years old, the father shoved Teddy’s head to the stove, burning up and leaving a irrevocable scar. Vern Tessio’s family isn’t that much explained but his brother Billy Tessio is a member of the town gang, led by Ace Merill. Also Vern’s still in fifth grade, despite the fact that he is twelve.

     Last but not least, Gordie also has some issues within his family. He is constantly neglected by his parents. They only seem to care about Gordie’s older brother Dennis, and as he died in a jeep accident, they lost interest at all. And when Gordie asks his father if he could play with his friends, his father responds, “A thief and two feebles. Fine company for my son.” Gordie is upset towards his father who doesn’t try to understand at all.

Mr.Moon -- Three words that explain myself

Three words describing myself

     When asked to describe myself, three words pop in my head – curious, patterns and freshness. Ever since I started reading books, I carried sack of questions. I wanted to know more about people, the world and myself. My mother often recalls me asking too many questions at a shopping mall that while answering them she forgot what she had to buy. When young I asked anything. But as growing up, I started pondering more deeply by myself before talking about my doubts and interests. I also love to follow, find and understand patterns. Sequence, order, cause and effect describes very much of my thoughts. Maybe this made me to have interest in topic of science. Last but not least, I pursue ‘freshness’. Besides the fact that I love fresh fruit or the aroma of fresh flowers, I always desire fresh ideas that lead to inspiration. The three words curious, patterns and freshness explains why I hope to become a inspirational researcher, endeavoring on the field I feel curious about.

Metafiction- really a fiction

     

      “Good afternoon, Mr. Harrison.”

Peter Simons, the forty-five-year-old, young, passionate attorney, greeted his client as he stepped out of the defense bench. Kyle Harrison, the alleged serial killer, sat on the witness seat as if he was stunned. The black wave, the immense flow of fear … Harrison was feeling the grotesque ambiance again. 

“Mr. Harrison, I will help you out of this misunderstanding that brought you to this court today. Would you mind if I asked a few questions about that particular night of November 5^th, 1991?”

The room became absolutely quite. Not a single sound was heard. Every single string of attention headed towards the convict.

“Mr. Harrison?”

"Err... yes, sir?"

"Would you please state what you can remember?"

“It was a stormy night. James William and I were drinking buckets of beer at Jimmie's house. I recognize that we had a tough chat about the rock concert that we attended yesterday. It was about five minutes before midnight. Yes, that's exactly when 'he' came and knocked the door. Shivering for somewhat reason, Jimmie went to the door and twisted his palm to open the door. Just when the door was opened about half, that's when we saw his silhouette, we all fell to the ground.       That's exactly what happened. Magically, we all fell to the ground. I think it's too much of a coincidence for all of us to just fall asleep because of drinking. It was some eerie force that knocked all three of us."

Judge Carrick suddenly frowned when Harrison mentioned the last few lines. The audience became noisy in astonishment. The District Attorney stared at the witness as if he cannot believe a single word. Simons quickly managed to continue the direct examination.

“Mr. Harrison, could you move on please?”

       "Consciousness came back with headache, but I thought I was still dreaming because I couldn't believe my sight. Willy was hanged above the desk and Jimmie was lying on the floor with blood all over his back.      Damn! The house was full of Jimmie's blood and the nasty smell of his corpse. I was definitely frightened for a moment. I looked around myself, finding for some weapons for protection. I found a Benelli M1 Super 90, the type of shot gun I used when hunting for animals. However, it was such a surprise because Jimmie has never kept those kinds of arms at home. With the shotgun, I decided to look for "him". Half angered, half curious, I really wanted to find who he was.      Then the door knocked again. So, I went to the door, and shot my shotgun toward door. After I used all bullets, I found that I killed Jimmie. Jimmie's blood was everywhere and I carried him inside the house. William was the only person who saw my crime.      I wasn't myself after I saw blood gushing out of Jimmie's wounds. The shotgun pellets ripped his limbs apart and left huge holes on his body. Not knowing what I was doing, I blankly aimed of William and pulled the trigger.”

     Scream was heard from back of the court. People were now literally shivering in fear. Little kids were crying, women terrified and the judge ruled order in court. Simons, feeling the need to finish the direct examination, asked judge the permission to enter an exhibit. It was the shotgun, Benelli M1 Super 90.

     “Mr. Harrison, do you recognize this gun?”

       “Sure. It seems like the one I used that night. Shotgun is a monstrous weapon. It never shoots; It busts. So that's what Benelli M1 Super 90 exactly did. It busted William. It tore him and pulled him all the way to the porch stairs. I maybe wanted to make things clearer. I took the shot gun, ran down the porch steps and stepped on William. William was breathing with a great difficulty. So I sent him close to God. Nice fella. He belongs there. That's where I'll never go in. I'll never reach heaven, but he won't as well if I don't finish him up. I shoved the muzzle in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
    And a sharp clicking sound was heard. Boom!”

     A hysterical laugh, a bit of coughing.

     And then, another “boom”

     It wasn’t Simons holding the exhibit any more. It was ‘him’ waiting to take Harrison to hell.

    

Experimental medication-hope or threat?

A father was crying over the death of his daughter. She was only twenty-one years old when she found out that she had a unique illness called squamos cell carcinoma. The father and daughter sought for every type of medication, but none of those available at hospital could heal her deadly illness. Her last resort was using experimental medical treatment, cetuximab and gefitinib to name a few. However, unfortunately, these medicines were undergoing clinical trials at the moment and she didn’t meet the inclusion criteria to take part in the trial. A few months later, the daughter died in vein. Her name was Abigail Burroughs, whose father sued the FDA for her daughter’s death. And this incident aroused the voice arguing that terminally ill patients should be given the right to demand experimental medical treatment.

Like the example of Burroughs indicates, there are problems in the current system of medical treatment. Today, many people are diagnosed as ‘terminally ill’ patients, who are defined as patients that their diseases cannot be cured with current methods of treatment. What can these patients do? They don’t have much choice, but waiting for death. On this issue, Cary Gross, MD, says, “terminally ill cancer patients are often willing to try unproven treatments when standard therapies are either unavailable or have failed to work. However, many are ineligible for clinical trials, and drug access through compassionate-use programs can be procedurally difficult to secure. Thus, access to experimental compounds is extremely limited for many patients.” Change is urgent and important.

     Of course, there are some reasons why many people believe experimental medical treatment shouldn’t be given to patients. One of their biggest points is that experimental treatment, by its very definition of something being unproven to be safe, has a great possibility to be harmful to patients. They view experimental treatment as injecting an unidentified substance into any patient. However, such argument doesn’t stand. Clearly, introducing new drugs and medication isn’t simple even in the status quo. In the case of the U.S., the FDA strictly regulates researchers to undergo numerous times of animal experimentation before proceeding to further clinical trials. After thorough beforehand research, doctors will be providing treatments to patients. In other words, no mad scientist will be playing with the innocent patients.

     Also, this policy benefits medical science and technology as a whole. Once patients are allowed to access experimental treatments, there would be more cases of testing new medications, which will foster medical research. The current system of clinical trial is tedious and slow compared to this. Also, testing would be more productive and accurate since researchers get to test on actual patients like Abigail Burroughs, thus able to prove whether the medicine really attains the desired effects or not. Advance in medical science also leads to more benefits to the society. More medicine available means more lives saved. Therefore, experimental medication is beneficial for sure.

     The society doesn’t want any more unfortunate cases like Abigail Burroughs’s. Moreover, the government has responsibility to provide the best chance to live and the freedom of choice to its citizens. The new voice for experimental medication is upholding these values: saving lives and granting liberty. For the patients and for the society, terminally ill patients should be given the right to demand experimental treatment.

Response to "Spring" in Kim Ki Duk's Film

      Even today, fear exists between me and my parents. Since very young, I remember that my parents have been strict and firm when they came to child education. When I did wrong, and especially when I intentionally did so, I was scolded a lot. Probably I cannot firmly declare that such punishments were so severe, since I don’t know how other parents taught their children. However, as far as I conceived as a young boy, I was afraid, frightened whenever I found out that I were to be punished.
     At this moment, I can remember the fact of being scolded a lot, but there are few anecdotes that flashed inside my head once I saw the video clip. In the short video, a little boy was punished by his master for being cruel to animals. It was rather drastic, since most teachers or parents probably would have simply told him not to do so. Instead, the monk does what the boy did to the animals, but this time, to the boy—tying up with a big stone. The boy cries in vain that he is sorry, both discovering the corpse of the snake and climbing up the mountain with the stone on his back. Through this punishment, the monk made the lesson clear,
     Similarly, I once acted really wrongfully and my parents gave severe punishments. I lied about my whereabouts after school. Trying to cover my fault going to the PC rooms without permission and wandering the streets until late, I told that I had group studies. What made my parents angrier was that I lied for three days in a row. On the third day, my mother called one of the boys that I “alleged” to study with. She was totally shocked. And I came home late.
     Literally, I was kicked out of home. My father said that he will never have a liar as a son. In the middle of the night, I shivered in cold, sitting on the stairs, and thought about what I did. At first thought, I felt my parents were being too harsh. Other kids were doing the same thing, but why only me? Though, looking back, I feel such disciplines guided me the right way, just as the monk taught the little boy in the film. Harsh yet effective education must be a bitter medicine that helps children in the future.

Chain writing: a bit absurd

A Colorful world
I never thought like that before. I always thought that my life is going to be boring. Still I am a student and I cannot deny that. Thinking of tomorrow, I can only imagine more tests and homework. Dreadful days continuously depressed me. And that is when I met him.
“David,” he introduced himself.
I didn’t reply, because he seemed so different from me. He had his hair dyed with bloody red color. He wore earrings and showed his pink chewing gum as he kept saying. He seemed rude and violent. I hoped he wouldn’t come any closer.
But as if my teacher was trying to torture me, his seat was right beside me. She was expecting David to be more like me, I guess. During math class, he asked me thousands of questions and I hated it. Mid-term was only a few days to go so I had to concentrate. But I didn’t want to be rude to him, so I answered very shortly. As I told him that I don’t play any sports, I don’t play any games except facebook Tetris and I don’t have any hobbies, he started to tell his stories.
“Dude, wanna know something ‘bout me? I used to have this real crazy, yet hot girlfriend. When I told her to break up, she was driven mad and almost killed me with the fork she was holding. Anyway, that’s my story, dude. Now tell me about yours, if you even have one.”
I didn’t know what to say. I’ve never had any girlfriends, not even a ‘girl’ friend. But I couldn’t tell him that, especially when he seemed to be searching for every reason to mock me. So I decided to tell him the most dramatic, sentimental love story.
“Sure, I guess it was last year that I had a crush with this girl…”
Like that I told him my story, of course, a fabricated one. As more I came up with details, David’s face seemed to be filled with awe. He tried to hide his facial expression, but I could rather read that he was astonished. And at last he said, “Oh wow, you’re a real man.” So this is how I became colorful, a bit too much.

--> I guess this story really is 'ridiculous' ...

Of education and creativity

An Extraordinarily Complicated Issue

A small square room packed with 40 students, a dull atmosphere and students starting to fall asleep – these are what typical public schools in South Korea are facing. The majority, actually the ‘vast’ majority, of students isn’t interested in school subjects and classes, and I am rather confident on this matter since I myself attended such schools. Even students who strive in studies aren’t enjoying school life. They say that their only reason to study is to get good grades, entering prestigious schools and hopefully, having jobs that ensure wealth. It seems impossible to blame such motivation; however it isn’t what public schools should be pursuing either. Moreover, the hope that a college diploma from a famous university doesn’t seem to grant jobs, as Sir Ken Robinson says in his speech. I very much agree with his points but with some more questions.

“School kills creativity,” says Sir Robinson throughout this video clip. His main point is that the current public education system is hindering the progress of students growing their creativity. He says, “if you think of it, the whole system of public education around the world is a protracted process of university entrance. And the consequence is that many highly talented, brilliant, creative people think they’re not, because the thing they were good at at school wasn’t valued, or was actually stigmatized.” This long yet insightful quote is an accurate analysis of the status quo, especially in South Korea. Sir Robinson has addressed problems in the United States, and compared to that South Korea is more known for its education so fiercely focused on standardized testing and college admission. Therefore, the trend of students’ creativity deteriorating is significant problem for this country.

However, Sir Robinson’s speech seems problematic for some points. He mentions that creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value. But at the same time, he says that the current education system is too obsessed to teaching theoretical lessons and forcing the students to learn certain answers. Then I would like to ask how students will be able to produce ‘valuable’ ideas without learning information essential to build up such ideas. For an example take engineering. If a brilliant student is trying to come up with a new biomedical device, how would it be possible if he didn’t learn about mechanics, biology and other related subjects. The examples from Sir Robinson were mostly about arts, which comparatively do not need prerequisite knowledge to become ‘creative,’ which shows his analysis was provincial.

     Also, it is quite unfortunate to find out that Ken Robinson doesn’t have the answer either. Great reformation to be conducted but people aren’t just ready for it and do not have substantial plans. As he says that intelligence is diverse, dynamic and distinct so it is very presumable that there have been profound researches regarding this. But on the other hand, he doesn’t address any educational studies related to systematical approaches to support his explanation of intelligence.

     Thankfully, from the other video clip, introducing the world-famous Finland education system, we can glimpse a light thread of hope – hope that education can be really successful. Finland education accurately fulfills most of Sir Robinson’s points of reforming education. Despite the obscurity whether Finland schools are also obsessed with certain subjects like mathematics, the teacher to pupil ratio is very low, allowing essential care so that students’ creativity can be developed.

     What governments should be doing is quite similar to following the Finland model but still making improving and changing to fit their distinct situations. One problem to be mentioned about the Finland model is that it requires a load of money. Three teachers in one classroom, diverse curriculum and teachers with masters’ degrees receiving adequate amount of wages isn’t applicable to countries who are struggling from lack of money. Even schools in South Korea, which ranks world’s top 14^th for the size of economy, have a hard time recruiting teachers both in quantity and quality. The feasibility of the Finland model is subject to doubt.

      Therefore, it is great misconception to believe education can be reformed in a short instance. Today’s form of public education is the consequence of constant development since the enlightenment. Yes, there were changes and modifications on policies but the problem is that they weren’t sufficient enough to make substantial influences. Now, it is high time for making steps forward – a expedition to solve the extraordinarily complicated issue of public education.



Reading Journal #1 - Shawshank Redemption

He was an innocent man who had been victimized by colossal bad luck, not a missionary or a do-gooder

– Red from Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption

     A few days ago, I watched a rather childish movie called Green Lantern. A typical super-hero movie, the story was basically about a pilot accidentally receiving a green ring, becoming a member of the green lantern and saving both the Earth and the universe from the evil monsters. Though, what I found interesting was the underlying theme of the movie. The green lanterns fought the evil forces with their green light from the power of “will.” On the contrary, the monsters devastated planets with their yellow beams of “fear.” Since having “will” in believing that things will get better actually is “hope,” the Green Lantern, alike Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, depicts the collision of fear and hope within human beings.

     Andy Dufersne is the figure of ‘hope’ in Stephen King’s novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. Among other prisoners who were being ‘institutionalized,’ Andy stood different. He always hoped and dreamed about the day that he would get out of jail.

Pandemic diseases: the current crisis (Term Paper for 1st semester)

“Gentlemen, I urge you to engrave this on the template of your memories: there are thousands of diseases in this world, but Medical Science only has an empirical cure for twenty-six of them. The rest is … guesswork.”                               
                                                                                     -from Doctors by Erich Segal

During the recent decades, medical science has shown a great advance in knowledge of diseases. Vaccines and remedies have been discovered by numerous scientists all over the world and day by day we are expanding our knowledge about viruses, bacteria and eventually, our body. It is true that the average life span has almost doubled compared to that of centuries before. Nevertheless, there are many pandemic diseases that are catastrophic since modern science cannot give specific solutions. Moreover, the diseases and viruses are continuously transforming, especially the flu. And the problem is that such worries seem to become realities.

     Recently in Korea, a mysterious virus that has infected eight patients became a serious issue. The eight patients, according to the Korean Joongang Daily article on May 11, have been ‘receiving treatment for various conditions suspected to be caused by the same unidentified virus’ (Yim 1). And at last in May 10, a 36-year-old pregnant woman, one of the eight patients, died in a hospital in Seoul, and the cause is known as organ failure mainly from pulmonary fibrosis. The seriousness of this issue is found here: the disease is unidentified. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that there were adenovirus and coronavirus found in her lung but they aren’t likely to be the cause of pulmonary fibrosis, implying that there is some virus that we do not know yet.

     This incident reminded me of the H1N1 influenza virus that drove the whole world into panic two years ago. The pandemic human H1N1 first revealed itself in ‘March 2009 by infecting a 10-year-old boy from San Diego, California, who showed symptoms of fever, cough and vomiting’ (H1N1). I still remember the announcement that there won’t be any classes for a week. I was happy for no school, yet worried that this crisis might even influence me or my family. Actually, my brother seemed to be infected so we went to the hospital to get descriptions for Tamiflu, the antivirus medicine that was in great shortage only a few weeks before my brother went to the drugstore. Fortunately, my brother recovered quickly.

     However, epidemics are serious issues that people must be aware of. Some people seem to forget the fact that there are numerous kids in Africa dying from Malaria and AIDS but on the other hand more concerned about the performance of celebrities or soccer match results. It doesn’t really matter which team wins the game, at least it is not a problem of life and death, which diseases are. I thought that issues related to pandemic diseases were serious and worthwhile for discussion. So I started writing on this topic of how we, the humans, are threatened by newly emerging diseases and what measures we should take.

     I first wondered why. Why did the human influenza H1N1 suddenly appear on earth, leaving so many casualties? Similar questions have been raised by epidemiologists and virologists, who also found the most important clue for the answer – the pigs. According to commonsense, bird influenzas should be infectious to birds, swine to pigs and human to humans. But surprisingly, pigs are subject to the infection of all three above, resulting the chance of have three or even more different types of influenza viruses co-existing in a single cell. So inside the infected cell, the viral genes get mixed as if making alloys with different metals. Just like alloys have features and functions that differ from the original metals, the new mutation of influenza virus, the reassortant, is also very different from the original form. An accurate example could be the notorious H1N1 of year 2009, which the original virus was infectious only to swine.

     The human H1N1 was a mixture of a number of different animal influenzas. The beginning of this virus was a mere variation of Classic swine influenza H1N1, like even the cruelest dictators were once naïve children. But suddenly this influenza virus started to evolve in a dramatic rate in North America, probably because there were so many pigs raised. This led to the discovery of a new H3N2 virus in 1998 and it had already infected Iowa and Texas by then. This virus was a “so-called triple reassortant containing classical swine flu virus genes, along with genes from viruses that normally infect birds as well as those that infect people” (Branswell 49). And later on it also fused with other versions such as H1N2, and the Eurasian swine H1N1. Finally, the monster was born.

     Not only H1N1, most of the dreadful influenzas were created through this process. The outbreak in 1918 was caused by a deviation of the H1N1 virus. This deadly pandemic virus ‘killed upward of 50 million people’ (Branswell 48). Ports were closed, transportation cut off and the economy was devastated. In addition, the mutation of H5N1 brought the outbreak of bird influenza in Hong Kong and other Southeast Asian countries. In 2003, people were startled when they heard the news that a three-year-old child was infected by this bird influenza virus that never affiliated with humans before. Several people died and ‘770,000 chickens were slaughtered in a single day’ (Kolata 315).

     Moreover, Susan Scott and Christopher Duncan, the authors of the book Return of the Black Death, listed several factors why it is going to be harder to prevent and control pandemic diseases. ‘The increase of international travels, influences of scientific advance, change in the environment, change in life style, the emergence of anti-medicine organisms and the mutation of microbes’ (Scott and Duncan 318-320) were responsible for hindering the researchers to take accurate measures. Today, therefore, people are confronting an urgent crisis that may be dangerous as the Great Plague, or maybe even more detrimental.

Though, still there is hope and there are solutions. And solutions come from thorough understanding of the problem. As mentioned before, the main problem is that we cannot predict the rapid change of these viruses and we aren’t armed with vaccines ready when these mutations emerge above the surface. Possible solutions we can find are scientific research and careful monitoring of new diseases. Scientists, first of all, should be aware about the possibilities of new pandemic diseases so they should look after the up-to-date data that signals new diseases and seek for fundamental solutions such as new medicines at the same time.

     But not only the researchers, others, especially government officials should engage in solving the crisis. Governments are meant to be in charge of the national well-being of its citizens; hence they have obligations to strive on preventing outbreaks of new diseases. Researchers are complaining that there isn’t much information available for tracking the transformation and new emergence of diseases. The pork and poultry industry continues to resist offering test results to the officials, worrying that it may influence the pork and chicken price. On this issue, Nancy J. Cox, head of the influenza division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says, “We understand all of the issues on the agricultural side. But we want to work toward a solution where there is a greater sharing of information that is available” (Branwell 51). Here, the government’s role is crucial. Maintaining a neutral position, but still concerning about the overall health, the government should negotiate with farms and ranches giving different options like subsidies or guaranteeing the anonymity of the results.

Well, there may be problems that a single government cannot solve easily. IN this case, international, inter-governmental organizations would be great help. As diseases are spread throughout air lines and ports, a single organization that has authority to censor all countries would be easier to catch the glimpse of new diseases than one government. Also, censoring done by international agency is likely to be more objective and accurate since it is a third person not affiliated with domestic issues like caring the pork industries and has better technology than most of the countries do. Lastly, international organizations can also enforce governments to strengthen their monitoring on swine and poultry, which is a problem discussed above. The World Health Organization will be appropriate to serve this function since WHO states that one of their main roles is ‘providing leadership on matters critical to health and engaging in partnerships where joint action is needed’ (WHO).

Therefore, cooperation and collaboration are required. Since we have explored that our health is in danger, we need to keep a keen look on new trends of diseases and foster further research. Professor Dinglasan, a molecular biologist at Johns Hopkins University, says ‘the key is making sure that the global health community stays engaged for the long haul’ (Carmichael 75). One thing sure is that the threat of pandemic diseases needs to be taken seriously.

Works cited

Branswell, Helen. "Flu factories." Scientific American January, 2011 (2011): 46-51.

Parenthetical References (In-text) -- (Branswell 46-51)

Carmichael, Mary. "Halting the world’s most lethal parasite." Scientific American November, 2010 (2010): 69-75.

Parenthetical References (In-text) -- (Carmichael 69-75)

H1N1 influenza virus: Naver health search (신종인플루엔자 A H1N1 네이버 건강검색). Seoul National University Hospital. 15 May 2011

<http://health.search.naver.com/search.naver?where=health_detail&sm=tab_txc&ie=utf8&query=%EC%8B%A0%EC%A2%85%EC%9D%B8%ED%94%8C%EB%A3%A8%EC%97%94%EC%9E%90a(h1n1)>.

Parenthetical References (In-text) -- (H1N1)

Kolata, Gina, translated by Ahn, Jung Hee. Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for Virus. Seoul: 사이언스북스, 2003.

Parenthetical References (In-text) – (Kolata 289-316)

Scott, Susan., Christopher Duncan, translated by Hwang, Jung Yeon. Return of the Black Death. Seoul: 황소자리, 2005.

Parenthetical References (In-text) -- (Scott and Duncan 318-321)

Segal, Erich. Doctors. New York: Bantam Books, 1989.

Parenthetical References (In-text) – (Segal)

                    

WHO| The role of WHO in public health. 2011. World Health Organization (WHO). 15 May 2011

< http://www.who.int/about/role/en/index.html>.

Parenthetical References (In-text) -- (WHO)

Yim, Seung-hye. "Mystery virus in 8 patients kills one." Korea Joongang Daily May, 11 2011: page 1

Parenthetical References (In-text) -- (Yim 1)

On my writing ...

Always, it is painful to admit things. Confession requires a great amount of courage. And here it seems I have to go through this painful procedure—I’m not sure if I have an effective writing style or not. My writing style differed from time to time and for each topic I think I have changed it. I’ve written various types of prose from literary analyses to argumentative and expository essays. The ones that I consider to be my best are also very diverse, too.

One of them is my term paper for last semester. The topic was the newly emerging pandemic influenzas, including the recent example of influenza H1N1 of 2009. In that paper I also discussed the mechanism of how reasserting and transformation occurs among the viruses. And my last paragraph emphasized the importance of international and multilateral cooperation as a solution.

Therefore, cooperation and collaboration are required. Since we have explored that our health is in danger, we need to keep a keen look on new trends of diseases and foster further research. Professor Dinglasan, a molecular biologist at Johns Hopkins University, says ‘the key is making sure that the global health community stays engaged for the long haul’ (Carmichael 75). One thing sure is that the threat of pandemic diseases needs to be taken seriously.

     In general, I like to write essays on academic topics. And in such academic essays I try to both intellectual and readable. This is my first paragraph of my essay that I wrote about the reason to learn history:

Humans must be more than naked apes. The greatest difference between us and the other animals is that we can actively gain knowledge and apply it to better our lives. If there were a tree on fire, an ape would only ‘see’ the fierce flames and run away. However, a man goes a few steps further. He studies the fire and recognizes that it is releasing warmth. Then he ponders how he could make fire by his own, without lightning. Like that, the mankind has been pursuing knowledge.

Also, I’ve written literary essays on works like “Mid-term break” of Seamus Heaney, Lord of the Flies by William Golding and Of Mice and Men of John Steinbeck. Frankly speaking, I am not really into literature but when writing analyses I try my best to understand what the writer is implying. Still I feel I need more training and a better organization that will contribute to readability, which I seem to lack.

     I know that many renown writers have their own voice and own manner of writing, so I am very much looking forward to create my own writing style this semester. In classes I wish I could practice writing a lot with various topics. And more specifically, I wish to learn how to write different types of essays in different ways. Also, I expect to possess a wider variety of diction that will add better expressions to my writing. Above all, I wish I want to enjoy this class, English Composition for second semester!